memeorandum: What do Republicans suspect really happened in the FBI Trump-Russia investigation? (Byron York/Washington Examiner)

10:25 AM ET, June 18, 2018

Top Items:

Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart’ — Laura Bush is a former first lady of the United States. — On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents.

Discussion: Vox, Townhall, CNN, New Republic, Conservative News Today, Al Jazeera English, KTLA, France 24, New York Magazine, AOL, WSVN-TV, The Gateway Pundit, Axios, HuffPost, RedState, The Right Scoop, Raw Story, Mediaite, twitchy.com, Washington Press, Politico and ABC News

Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:

Trump Attacks Germany's Refugee Policy, Saying U.S. Must Avoid Europe's Immigration Problems — WASHINGTON — President Trump warned on Monday that the United States must avoid the immigration problems facing Europe and attacked the policies of Germany, one of America's closest allies.

Discussion: Vox, Reuters, Roll Call, One America News Network and emptywheel

Nomaan Merchant / Associated Press:

Hundreds of children wait in Border Patrol facility in Texas — McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Axios and POLITICUSUSA

Jill Colvin / Associated Press:

Family separation policy starts dividing Republicans — WASHINGTON (AP) — The emotional policy of separating children from their parents is also starting to divide Republicans and their allies as Democrats turn up the pressure. — Former first lady Laura Bush called the policy “cruel” …

Discussion: CNN

Nick Cumming-Bruce / New York Times:

U.N. Rights Chief Tells U.S. to Stop Taking Migrant Children From Parents — GENEVA — The United Nations' top human rights official on Monday entered the mounting furor over the Trump administration's policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents …

Discussion: RedState and Talking Points Memo

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Poll: Republicans Approve of Trump's Family Separation Policy … Nearly every day, voters have been confronted with heart wrenching stories about immigrant children being separated from their parents upon crossing the border into the United States. — The president incorrectly blames …

Discussion: CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog, Boing Boing, Splinter, United States Senator …, Political Wire, Washington Press, KTLA, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Politico and Washington Post

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Trump and the Baby Snatchers — This was the lead paragraph of a New York Times report last week: — “The Trump administration said on Friday that it had separated 1,995 children from parents facing criminal prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border over a six-week period that ended last month …

Discussion: Boing Boing, Econlib and Mediaite

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart:
Associated Press Uses ‘Cages’ to Describe Chain-Link Partitions in Border Patrol Center

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Los Angeles Times

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Leading Republicans Join Democrats in Pushing Trump to Halt Family Separations

Discussion: American Prospect, Washington Post, Mashable, Talking Points Memo, Bloomberg, HuffPost, The Crime Report, Power Line, twitchy.com, KTLA, Balloon Juice, Shareblue Media, Bangor Daily News and New York Magazine

Washington Post:
Democrats intensify fight for immigrant children — and bludgeon Trump and Republicans ahead of midterms

Discussion: HuffPost, Talking Points Memo and NBC News

Ilya Somin / Reason:
“Enforcing the Law” Doesn't Justify Separating Migrant Children from their Parents

Discussion: CNN, Raw Story and America's Voice

Michal Kranz / Business Insider France:

Meet Stephen Miller, the 32-year-old White House adviser who convinced Trump to start separating migrant children from their parents at the border — White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has been identified as the driving force behind the Trump administration's “zero tolerance” …

James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Trump team cannot get its story straight on separating migrant families

Discussion: Politico, New York Daily News and Raw Story

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Melania Trump weighs in on her husband's cruel policy. Where are you, Ivanka?

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Daily Beast, Conservative News Today, Washington Press, HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Caller, Axios and Mediaite

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

What do Republicans suspect really happened in the FBI Trump-Russia investigation? — The struggle to uncover the FBI's conduct in the Trump-Russia probe has made some congressional investigators deeply suspicious of the bureau. But what do those investigators think the FBI actually …

Discussion: ABC News, Washington Post, MSNBC, emptywheel and New York Post

Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:
FBI agent removed from Russia probe for anti-Trump texts says he's willing to testify before Congress

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Just Security, The Crime Report, TheBlaze, New York Magazine, Mediaite, The Right Scoop, CNN, Power Line, The Daily Caller, Politico, Washington Free Beacon, Law & Crime and Axios

Jennifer Palmieri / Washington Post: A former campaign staffer on the ironies in the Inspector General's report.

Senator Ben Sasse:

Many Nebraskans this weekend asked me about the kids at the border. Here's a short version of what I told them. This is a bit over-simplified, but these are broad brushstrokes of how I understand the situation at present: — 1) Family separation is wicked.

Stanley B. Greenberg / New York Times:

Riling Up the Base May Backfire on Trump — Political commentators and strategists write with some awe of President Trump's outrageous, gutsy strategy of ginning up his base with one more attack on black athletes, one more crackdown on Central American mothers and children on the Mexican border …

Washington Examiner: Don't become the party of Trump

John Fund / National Review: Trump the Bulldozer — The President cows his critics …

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Kim Jong Un More Popular Than Pelosi Among Republicans: Exclusive Poll Results … Self-identified Republicans now have a marginally more favorable view of Kim Jong Un than they do for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), according to a new Ipsos poll done exclusively for The Daily Beast.

Discussion: Mediaite and Political Wire

Dana Branham / Dallas Morning News:

Texas deputy accused of sexually assaulting 4-year-old threatened her mother with deportation, sheriff says — A Texas sheriff's deputy accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl threatened the victim's mother into staying quiet about the assaults, authorities said Sunday.

Discussion: Raw Story

David Siders / Politico:

Shell-shocked Democrats regroup in Wisconsin — Donald Trump's stunning 2016 victory in the state sparked an urgent recovery mission. — OSHKOSH, Wis. — Donald Trump's romp through white, working class America in 2016 was nowhere more traumatic for Democrats than in Wisconsin …

New York Post:

Stop breaking up families at the border — House Speaker Paul Ryan says he wants to stop the mass separation of children from their families along the border, but his bid to fix it is pathetic. And President Trump's claim that Democrats need to change the relevant law is no better. — SEE ALSO

Olivia Goldhill / Quartz:

A new study ranks US states in order of psychopathy — Sometimes, it can feel like there are psychopaths everywhere. If you live in the United States, it's now possible to move to less psychopathic environs, thanks to new research ranking 48 contiguous states by psychopathy.

Michael Hawthorne / Chicago Tribune:

Trump Tower, one of largest users of Chicago River water, has never met EPA rules for protecting fish, records show — A view of Trump International Hotel & Tower from across the Chicago River on June 6, 2018. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) — Fishing piers and floating gardens welcome anglers …

Discussion: Raw Story

Amos Harel / Haaretz:

Former Israeli Minister Who Smuggled Ecstasy Now Accused of Spying for Iran — According to Shin Bet, Gonen Segev traveled twice to Iran to meet his handlers — Gonen Segev, a former Israeli lawmaker, is accused of spying for Iran and aiding the enemy during wartime, the Shin Bet security service said Monday.

Lev Facher / STAT:

Empty desks, squabbles, inexperienced staff: Exactly who is coordinating White House drug policy? — W — ASHINGTON — For at least six months, staffers in the Office of National Drug Control Policy — often political appointees in their 20s — have crossed 17th Street …

Anna Giaritelli / Washington Examiner:

US could be holding 30,000 border kids by August: Officials — The Trump administration could be holding 30,000 illegal immigrant children by the end of August as a result of its push to enforce federal immigration laws, which has led to the separation of children from their parents and guardians as those adults are prosecuted.